AN INVESTIGATION OF FRIENDSHIP PATTERNS AND MATERNAL ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES IN CHILDREN WITH CONDUCT PROBLEMS

Abstract

Fifty boys of the primary six level of education and their mothers were selected for the study. which sought to investigate the friendship patterns as well as the maternal attitudes and practices associated with the manifestation of conduct problem. 28 of the boys were rated. by the use of the Connors Teacher Rating Scale, as having no conduct problems; they formed the Non-Conduct Problem group. The remaining 22 boys were reported to have manifested conduct problems; they comprised the Conduct Problem group. Subjects were given a Child Questionnaire specifically designed to reveal their friendship patterns. while their mothers answered a Mother Questionnaire which contained items tapping their child-rearing- attitudes and practices. Results showed that boys with conduct problems had as their friends other boys who exhibited similar problem behaviours; conversely, boys who manifested no conduct problems had friends who also displayed no such problems. Differences in maternal attitudes were also found, for the attitudes of excluding outside influence and equalitarianism. Mothers of boys with conduct problems tended to be more equalitarian and less to exclude outside influence. No differences were found for maternal practices. The results for both mother and child were not confounded by background variables. They are suggestive of a dynamic interplay between peer and maternal factors in the manifestation of conduct problems among boys